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"The final specifications implement annual quotas of 3.4 million bushels for Atlantic surfclams, 5.333 million bushels for ocean quahogs, and 100,000 Maine bushels for Maine mahogany quahogs for the 2011-2013 fishing years. These quota levels maintain the status quo from the 2010 fishing year, consistent with the provisions of the Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Fishery Management Plan (FMP)"--Cover letter.
"This action sets the commercial quotas for the Atlantic surfclam and ocean quahog fisheries for 2014, 2015, and 2016. The quotas are unchanged from the quotas for the 2011, 2012, and 2013 fishing years. This action sets allowable harvest levels of Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs, prevent overfishing, and allow harvesting of optimum yield. This action also continues to suspend the minimum shell size for Atlantic surfclams for the 2014 fishing year"--Cover letter.
"The following Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared in response to the request from Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) to re-open a portion of the Georges Bank (GB) Closed Area that has been closed to surfclam/ocean quahog (SC/OQ) harvesting since 1990 due to red tide blooms which cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrative Order (NAO) 216-6, the environmental impacts of this action and the anticipated level of significance of these impacts are addressed in this EA. Since red tide events can vary inter-annually, the areas of closure can vary depending upon the severity of the event and the level of monitoring by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to indicate safe consumption. For purposes of this EA, it is anticipated that the FDA will request portions of the existing GB Closed Area to be re-opened and closed based upon future PSP-toxin monitoring results of SC/OQ. The impacts related to re-opening and closing areas within the GB Closed Area to harvesting SC/OQ are discussed in this EA, and this analysis would be in compliance with NEPA for future related actions. If the Council requests the re-opening of an area larger than or an area outside of what is described in this EA, a new EA must be prepared. It should be noted that in the case of an emergency, such as a public health concern, the Secretary of Commerce has the authority, under section 305(c) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, to re-open or close an area at any time by publication in the Federal Register. Duration and seasonality are factors associated with a SC/OQ harvest area re-opening or closing that would affect the economic impacts described below in Section 6.0. In response to comments received on the proposed rule for this action, the previous area Alternative A (the previously preferred alternative) is no longer the preferred alternative. The previously preferred Alternative A area, which would have re-opened the entire GB Closed Area defined under previously issued EFPs, is no longer prefered because it spatially overlaps with two potential Habitat Management Areas (HMAs) currently being developed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) as part of the Essential Fish Habitat Omnibus Amendment (OA2). If approved, one or both of these areas could be closed to certain types of fishing gears, including hydraulic dredges. HMAs that will be considered in this amendment would most likely be implemented in 2014. If no HMAs are established in this portion of Georges Bank, this area or portions thereof may be reconsidered for reopening"--Introduction (page 6).
"Currently, there are two commercial individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf). Amendment 261 (GMFMC 2006) established the red snapper IFQ (RS-IFQ) program, and Amendment 292 (GMFMC 2008a) established the grouper and tilefish IFQ (GT-IFQ) program. The RS-IFQ program began on January 1, 2007 and the GT-IFQ program began on January 1, 2010. As mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson-Stevens Act) and by Amendment 26, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council (Council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) collaboratively conducted a 5-year review of the RS-IFQ program (GMFMC and NMFS 2013), which was formally approved at the April 2013 Council meeting. The conclusions of the report are provided in Appendix B. The Council proceeded to appoint an Ad Hoc Red Snapper IFQ Advisory Panel to assist in recommending improvements to the program by identifying potential changes to the RS-IFQ program (Appendix C). The Council discussed a list of issues as potential modifications to the program at its February and April 2014 meetings and made modifications to the list. At its August 2014 meeting, the Council requested development of a scoping document to begin considering potential modifications to improve the performance of the RS-IFQ program. Scoping workshops were held in March 2015 (Appendix D). At its January 2016 meeting, the Council decided to further evaluate the items under consideration in the scoping document in separate amendments (36A and 36B), and expanded the scope to apply the proposed actions to both the RS-IFQ and GT-IFQ programs. Amendment 36A addresses advanced landing notification (also known as a "hail-in") requirements for all commercial reef fish trips to enhance enforcement, returning shares held in non-activated accounts to NMFS to be distributed at a later date, and giving NMFS the authority to withhold IFQ allocation before an expected quota reduction. Amendment 36B addresses the remaining items, as well as the method for distributing the shares held in non-activated accounts. The 5-year review of the GT-IFQ program is currently underway and the Council is expected to review a draft of the 5-year review at a meeting later in 2017"--Introduction.
"This EA is prepared pursuant to NEPA to assess the environmental impacts associated with NOAA Fisheries Service proceeding with management measures to repeal the subject FMP. These actions are purely administrative and procedural and would not change how the fishery is prosecuted because current federal regulations are identical to state regulations"--Cover letter; Portfolio comprised of three related PDF documents digitized and organized by: NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) staff.
"The purpose of Framework 22 is to set the following scallop management measures for the 2011 through 2013 fishing years: The overfishing limit, acceptable biological catches, annual catch limits, and annual catch targets for both the limited access and limited access general category (LAGC) fleets; open area days-at-sea (DAS) and Sea Scallop Access Area trip allocations; DAS adjustments if an access area yellowtail flounder total allowable catch (T AC) is caught; LAGC-specific allocations, including access area trip allocations for vessels with individual fishing quotas the Northern Gulf of Maine TAC, and the incidental target TAC; management measures to minimize impacts of incidental take of sea turtles as required by the March 14, 2008, Atlantic Sea Scallop Biological Opinion, and the elimination of the default Georges Bank access area rotation schedule"--Cover letter; Portfolio comprised of two related PDF documents digitized and organized by: NOAA Office of Program Planning and Integration (PPI) National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) staff.
"Recent stock assessments evaluated the condition of the Gulf of Mexico vermilion snapper and yellowtail snapper stocks. Neither stock is overfished or undergoing overfishing. One action of this framework is to set the Annual Catch Limit (ACL) for the vermilion snapper stock. The preferred alternative is no action (maintain the ACL at 3.42 million pounds) because of stakeholder concerns that the stock condition may be lower than indicated by the stock assessment. Another action is to evaluate changing the vermilion snapper bag limit. The preferred alternative is to set a 10-fish vermilion snapper bag limit within the 20-fish reef fish aggregate bag limit, with the intent of capping harvest at current levels. The third action sets the yellowtail snapper ACL. The preferred alternative increased the ACL from 725,000 pounds to 901,125 pounds, consistent with the acceptable biological catch recommendation. Finally, there is an action evaluating the requirement to have and use a venting tool when reef fish fishing. The preferred alternative is to eliminate the requirement providing fisherman more flexibility in how to address barotrauma when releasing fish"--Summary from cover letter.